Department for Business and Trade

Trade Update: UK-Gulf Cooperation Council FTA

Nigel Huddleston: The third round of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the UK and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took place between 12 and 16 March.The round was hosted by GCC in Riyadh and held in a hybrid fashion. A number of UK negotiators from across the Government travelled to Riyadh for in-person discussions and others attended virtually.Draft treaty text was advanced across the majority of chapters. Technical discussions were held across 13 policy areas over 30 sessions. Good progress was made and both sides remain committed to securing an ambitious, comprehensive and modern agreement fit for the 21st century.An FTA will be a substantial economic opportunity and a significant moment in the UK-GCC relationship. Government analysis shows that, in the long run, a deal with the GCC is expected to increase trade by at least 16%, add at least £1.6 billion a year to the UK economy and contribute an additional £600 million or more to UK.The fourth round of negotiations is expected to be hosted by the UK later this year.His Majesty’s Government remains clear that any deal we sign will be in the best interests of the British people and the United Kingdom economy. We will not compromise on our high environmental, public health, animal welfare and food standards, and we will maintain our right to regulate in the public interest. We are also clear that during these negotiations, the National Health Service and the services it provides is not on the table.

Department of Health and Social Care

Cyber Security Strategy

Will Quince: My Hon Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Markham) has made the following written statement:I am pleased to announce the publication of the Cyber Security Strategy for Health and Adult Social Care to 2030. The strategy sets out a vision to 2030 for a health and social care sector that is resilient to cyber attack. It establishes cyber security as a foundational business need to ensuring patient and service user safety. Improved cyber resilience will assure availability of services, protect valuable data, enable quicker response and recovery when attacks do occur, and increase public trust.The health and social care sector has made good progress in recent years, by making use of the increasing cyber defence and response mechanisms at its disposal, with the sector now much better protected from untargeted attack than it was at the time of the WannaCry cyber attack in 2017. However, we still have further to go. This strategy will shape a common purpose and an approach that will be applicable across health and social care systems including for adult social care, primary care, and our critical supply chain as well as for secondary care.Digital transformation offers huge opportunities for the sector and building cyber security into our design will be essential as we put the right technology and controls in place to realise those benefits. The five pillars in our strategy, developed collaboratively across the health and care sector, focus our approach on the most important risks to our most critical systems, while growing our cyber workforce so that we can better tackle threats in the long-term. The strategy will be supported by a national implementation plan in Summer 2023 which will detail activities and define metrics to build and measure resilience over the next two to three years.

Cabinet Office

Launch of the Consultation on the Effectiveness of the Digital Economy Act 2017 Debt and Fraud Powers

Alex Burghart: The Minister of State, Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG, has today made the following statement: Minister Burghart and I are pleased to announce the launch of a consultation on the effectiveness of the Digital Economy Act 2017 Debt and Fraud Powers.The Debt and Fraud Powers, as contained in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 respectively, allow specified public authorities to disclose information for the purpose of managing and reducing debt owed to a public authority or to the Crown and combating fraud against the Public Sector.These Powers must be reviewed, three years after their operation, for the purpose of deciding whether they should be retained, amended or repealed. As part of this Review, I am required to consult certain persons and publish a report on the Review’s outcomes.As part of this consultation, I shall engage with:the Information Commissioner,the Scottish Ministers,the Welsh Ministers,the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland,members of the Home Affairs Committee,bodies which have used the Debt and Fraud Powers of the Digital Economy Act 2017 andmembers of the Digital Economy Act Debt and Fraud Information Sharing Review Board.The Consultation is now open and will last for a period of six weeks ending on 27th April 2023.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

The UK's International Technology Strategy

James Cleverly: This is a joint statement with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.Today we have laid before the House the UK’s International Technology Strategy. Technological advances bring huge opportunities for our economies and societies and how we collaborate internationally will be critical to realising the benefits of these.The competition between authoritarian and liberal values will define how technologies shape our future. The Integrated Review Refresh 2023 reiterated the central role of technology in driving growth and ensuring the security of the British people. This strategy sets out how we will work internationally to increase the UK’s strategic advantage in technology, using that advantage to drive economic growth, protect our citizens’ security and ensure our values of freedom and democracy thrive.The International Technology Strategy is a cross-government strategy. It underpins how we deliver internationally the vision set out in the UK Science and Technology Framework.The strategy defines a set of principles to shape our engagement on technologies internationally - open, responsible, secure, and resilient. It sets out a framework for delivering an ambitious vision and championing our principles on the international stage. Our approach will be guided by six strategic priorities:Priority technologies and data: artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, engineering biology, semiconductors, and telecommunications, alongside data as a key underpinning enabler of all technologies. We will build strategic advantage in these areas to ensure the UK is world-leading and that they develop in line with our values.International partnerships for global leadership: working closely with governments, academia, and industry to support our shared growth and address global challenges.Values-based governance and regulation: promoting our principles and vision for a future technology order that benefits all by working with partners and through international fora to shape technology governance.Technology investment and expertise for the developing world: building capacity to bridge the technology divide and support partners to make informed choices.Technology to drive the UK economy: continuing to drive UK technology exports and promote the UK as the best place for technology companies to raise capital and attract foreign direct investment.Protecting our security interests: ensuring sensitive technology does not fall into hostile hands and that we retain critical technology capabilities in the UK.To realise the ambition of this strategy, we will bolster our capabilities across the UK’s overseas network so the right skills and expertise can be deployed. This will include increasing the number of Tech Envoys, increasing technology expertise across our global network, and uplifting the capability of our diplomats through training, secondments, and recruitment.A copy of the Strategy has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and is available on gov.uk.